Village Roadshow Theme Parks

The challenge

Village Roadshow Theme Parks (VRTP) is Australia’s largest theme park operator, providing some of the world's most thrilling entertainment rides and slides to over 5 million visitors per year. When it comes to security, VRTP have always chosen world leading access control and perimeter supplier Gallagher as their long-term partner. A relationship that began in the mid-1980s has grown to meet the expanding demands of each park, with key objectives including health and safety; risk mitigation; public relations; preserving assets and ambience; and using integration to save costs and improve security efficiencies.

The Gallagher solution

Gallagher's integrated security solution provides continuous surveillance across the parks, capturing any incidents which may occur on site. With intellectual property and assets that must be protected, the Gallagher 24 hour camera integration and intruder alarm management solutions play a key role in protecting staff, visitors, and monitoring employee cash handling and service. The integrated system also plays an important role in securing the site overnight from would-be intruders. Alongside video and alarm integration, Gallagher manages all primary entry points into parks. Once inside the parks, the Gallagher system manages restricted zones which include secured enclosures. Duress alarm monitoring is a central integration used by security staff with 70 alarm zones across all parks. In the event of an emergency, a wireless help-call system can identify back to the Command Centre the name, description, and location via a detailed site plan for each park. This is a vital security element for protecting captive mammals and animals, and IT infrastructure.

The business value

VRTP's guard workforce has been complimented by the Gallagher system, working seamlessly together. Command Centre technology has given VRTP total site security across all parks, within a year saving park operations approximately 20 hours a day in labour costs. With 250 cameras located discretely around all seven of VRTP's properties integrated back to the Gallagher Command Centre central control platform, the VRTP security team have the ability to monitor and control from one location, streamlining operations. Efficiencies in alarm generation have improved, with automatic escalation to the necessary staff member in a timely manner.

Fast facts

Business type: Entertainment theme parks

Size of site: 7 sites, from the Gold Coast, Queensland, to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Number of employees: more than 2,000 employees including front of house and back staff operations.

Daily visitor numbers: Collectively, the parks attract approximately 5 million visitors per annum. Peak days can attract between 10,000 and 15,000 guests. It is not unusual on a peak summer holiday day for Warner Bros. Movie World and Wet ‘n’ Wild Gold Coast to attract a combined attendance in excess of 30,000 visitors.